Console Observability

This guide is the operations reference for instrumenting and monitoring the Stella Ops Console (the web UI). It catalogs the front-end metrics, logs, and traces the Console emits, the dashboards and alerts operators build from them, the feature flags that gate telemetry, and the workflow for air-gapped sites. Read it before standing up Console dashboards or wiring alert rules.

Audience: Observability Guild, Console Guild, SRE/operators.
Scope: Metrics, logs, traces, dashboards, alerting, feature flags, and offline workflows for the Stella Ops Console (Sprint 23).
Prerequisites: Console deployed with metrics enabled (CONSOLE_METRICS_ENABLED=true) and OTLP exporters configured (OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_*).

1 · Instrumentation Overview

Telemetry stack: OpenTelemetry Web SDK (browser) + Console telemetry bridge → OTLP collector (Tempo/Prometheus/Loki). Server-side endpoints expose /metrics (Prometheus) and /health/*.
Sampling: Front-end spans sample at 5 % by default (OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER=parentbased_traceidratio). Metrics are un-sampled; log sampling is handled per category (§3).
Correlation IDs: Every API call carries x-stellaops-correlation-id; structured UI events mirror that value so operators can follow a request across gateway, backend, and UI.
Scope gating: Operators need the ui.telemetry scope to view live charts in the Admin workspace; the scope also controls access to /console/telemetry SSE streams.

2 · Metrics

Metric	Type	Labels	Notes
`ui_route_render_seconds`	Histogram	`route`, `tenant`, `device` (`desktop`,`tablet`)	Time between route activation and first interactive paint. Target P95 ≤ 1.5 s (cached).
`ui_request_duration_seconds`	Histogram	`service`, `method`, `status`, `tenant`	Gateway proxy timing for backend calls performed by the console. Alerts when backend latency degrades.
`ui_filter_apply_total`	Counter	`route`, `filter`, `tenant`	Increments when a global filter or context chip is applied. Used to track adoption of saved views.
`ui_tenant_switch_total`	Counter	`fromTenant`, `toTenant`, `trigger` (`picker`, `shortcut`, `link`)	Emitted after a successful tenant switch; correlates with Authority `ui.tenant.switch` logs.
`ui_offline_banner_seconds`	Histogram	`reason` (`authority`, `manifest`, `gateway`), `tenant`	Duration of offline banner visibility; integrate with air-gap SLAs.

2.2 Security & Session

Metric	Type	Labels	Notes
`ui_dpop_failure_total`	Counter	`endpoint`, `reason` (`nonce`, `jkt`, `clockSkew`)	Raised when DPoP validation fails; pair with Authority audit trail.
`ui_fresh_auth_prompt_total`	Counter	`action` (`token.revoke`, `policy.activate`, `client.create`), `tenant`	Counts fresh-auth modals; backlog above baseline indicates workflow friction.
`ui_fresh_auth_failure_total`	Counter	`action`, `reason` (`timeout`,`cancelled`,`auth_error`)	Optional metric (set `CONSOLE_FRESH_AUTH_METRICS=true` when feature flag lands).

2.3 Downloads & Offline Kit

Metric	Type	Labels	Notes
`ui_download_manifest_refresh_seconds`	Histogram	`tenant`, `channel` (`edge`,`stable`,`airgap`)	Time to fetch and verify downloads manifest. Target < 3 s.
`ui_download_export_queue_depth`	Gauge	`tenant`, `artifactType` (`sbom`,`policy`,`attestation`,`console`)	Mirrors `/console/downloads` queue depth; triggers when offline bundles lag.
`ui_download_command_copied_total`	Counter	`tenant`, `artifactType`	Increments when users copy CLI commands from the UI. Useful to observe CLI parity adoption.

2.4 Telemetry Emission & Errors

Metric	Type	Labels	Notes
`ui_telemetry_batch_failures_total`	Counter	`transport` (`otlp-http`,`otlp-grpc`), `reason`	Emitted by OTLP bridge when batches fail. Enable via `CONSOLE_METRICS_VERBOSE=true`.
`ui_telemetry_queue_depth`	Gauge	`priority` (`normal`,`high`), `tenant`	Browser-side buffer depth; monitor for spikes under degraded collectors.

Scraping tips:
Enable /metrics via CONSOLE_METRICS_ENABLED=true.
Set OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=https://otel.collector:4318 and relevant headers (OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS=authorization=Bearer <token>).
For air-gapped sites, point the exporter to the Offline Kit collector (localhost:4318) and forward the metrics snapshot using stella offline bundle metrics.

3 · Logs

Format: JSON via Console log bridge; emitted to stdout and optional OTLP log exporter. Core fields: timestamp, level, action, route, tenant, subject, correlationId, dpop.jkt, device, offlineMode.
Categories:
- ui.action – general user interactions (route changes, command palette, filter updates). Sampled 50 % by default; override with feature flag telemetry.logVerbose.
- ui.tenant.switch – always logged; includes fromTenant, toTenant, tokenId, and Authority audit correlation.
- ui.download.commandCopied – download commands copied; includes artifactId, digest, manifestVersion.
- ui.security.anomaly – DPoP mismatches, tenant header errors, CSP violations (level = Warning).
- ui.telemetry.failure – OTLP export errors; include httpStatus, batchSize, retryCount.
PII handling: Full emails are scrubbed; only hashed values (user:<sha256>) appear unless ui.admin + fresh-auth were granted for the action (still redacted in logs).
Retention: Recommended 14 days for connected sites, 30 days for sealed/air-gap audits. Ship logs to Loki/Elastic with ingest label service="stellaops-web-ui".

4 · Traces

Span names & attributes:
- ui.route.transition – wraps route navigation; attributes: route, tenant, renderMillis, prefetchHit.
- ui.api.fetch – HTTP fetch to backend; attributes: service, endpoint, status, networkTime.
- ui.sse.stream – Server-sent event subscriptions (status ticker, runs); attributes: channel, connectedMillis, reconnects.
- ui.telemetry.batch – Browser OTLP flush; attributes: batchSize, success, retryCount.
- ui.policy.action – Policy workspace actions (simulate, approve, activate); see the UI guide.
Propagation: Spans use W3C traceparent; gateway echoes header to backend APIs so traces stitch across UI → gateway → service.
Sampling controls: OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER_ARG (ratio) and feature flag telemetry.forceSampling (sets to 100 % for incident debugging).
Viewing traces: Grafana Tempo or Jaeger via collector. Filter by service.name = stellaops-console. For cross-service debugging, filter on correlationId and tenant.

5 · Dashboards

5.1 Experience Overview

Panels:

Route render histogram (P50/P90/P99) by route.
Backend call latency stacked by service (ui_request_duration_seconds).
Offline banner duration trend (ui_offline_banner_seconds).
Tenant switch volume vs failure rate (overlay ui_dpop_failure_total).
Command palette usage (ui_filter_apply_total + ui.action log counts).

5.2 Downloads & Offline Kit

Manifest refresh time chart (per channel).
Export queue depth gauge with alert thresholds.
CLI command adoption (bar chart per artifact type, using ui_download_command_copied_total).
Offline parity banner occurrences (downloads.offlineParity flag from API → derived metric).
Last Offline Kit import timestamp (join with Downloads API metadata).

5.3 Security & Session

Fresh-auth prompt counts vs success/fail ratios.
DPoP failure stacked by reason.
Tenant mismatch warnings (from ui.security.anomaly logs).
Scope usage heatmap (derived from Authority audit events + UI logs).
CSP violation counts (browser securitypolicyviolation listener forwarded to logs).

Capture screenshots for Grafana once dashboards stabilise (docs/assets/ui/observability/*.png). Replace placeholders before releasing the doc.

6 · Alerting

Alert	Condition	Suggested Action
ConsoleLatencyHigh	`ui_route_render_seconds_bucket{le="1.5"}` drops below 0.95 for 3 intervals	Inspect route splits, check backend latencies, review CDN cache.
BackendLatencyHigh	`ui_request_duration_seconds_sum / ui_request_duration_seconds_count` > 1 s for any service	Correlate with gateway/service dashboards; escalate to owning guild.
TenantSwitchFailures	Increase in `ui_dpop_failure_total` or `ui.security.anomaly` (tenant mismatch) > 3/min	Validate Authority issuer, check clock skew, confirm tenant config.
FreshAuthLoop	`ui_fresh_auth_prompt_total` spikes with matching `ui_fresh_auth_failure_total`	Review Authority `/fresh-auth` endpoint, session timeout config, UX regressions.
OfflineBannerLong	`ui_offline_banner_seconds` P95 > 120 s	Investigate Authority/gateway availability; verify Offline Kit freshness.
DownloadsBacklog	`ui_download_export_queue_depth` > 5 for 10 min OR queue age > alert threshold	Ping Downloads service, ensure manifest pipeline (`DOWNLOADS-CONSOLE-23-001`) is healthy.
TelemetryExportErrors	`ui_telemetry_batch_failures_total` > 0 for ≥5 min	Check collector health, credentials, or TLS trust.

Integrate alerts with Notifier (ui.alerts) or existing Ops channels. Tag incidents with component=console for correlation.

7 · Feature Flags & Configuration

Flag / Env Var	Purpose	Default
`CONSOLE_FEATURE_FLAGS`	Enables UI modules (`runs`, `downloads`, `policies`, `telemetry`). Telemetry panel requires `telemetry`.	`runs,downloads,policies`
`CONSOLE_METRICS_ENABLED`	Exposes `/metrics` for Prometheus scrape.	`true`
`CONSOLE_METRICS_VERBOSE`	Emits additional batching metrics (`ui_telemetry_*`).	`false`
`CONSOLE_LOG_LEVEL`	Minimum log level (`Information`, `Debug`). Use `Debug` for incident sampling.	`Information`
`CONSOLE_METRICS_SAMPLING` (planned)	Controls front-end span sampling ratio. Document once released.	`0.05`
`OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT`	Collector URL; supports HTTPS.	unset
`OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS`	Comma-separated headers (auth).	unset
`OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_INSECURE`	Allow HTTP (dev only).	`false`
`OTEL_SERVICE_NAME`	Service tag for traces/logs. Set to `stellaops-console`.	auto
`CONSOLE_TELEMETRY_SSE_ENABLED`	Enables `/console/telemetry` SSE feed for dashboards.	`true`

Feature flag changes should be tracked in release notes and mirrored in the UI guide (navigation and workflow expectations).

8 · Offline / Air-Gapped Workflow

Mirror the Console image and telemetry collector as part of the Offline Kit (see the Console deployment guide).
Scrape metrics locally via curl -k https://console.local/metrics > metrics.prom; archive alongside logs for audits.
Use stella offline kit import to keep the downloads manifest in sync; dashboards display staleness using ui_download_manifest_refresh_seconds.
When collectors are unavailable, console queues OTLP batches (up to 5 min) and exposes backlog through ui_telemetry_queue_depth; export queue metrics to prove no data loss.
After reconnecting, run stella console status --telemetry (CLI parity pending; see DOCS-CONSOLE-23-014) or verify ui_telemetry_batch_failures_total resets to zero.
Retain telemetry bundles for 30 days per compliance guidelines; include Grafana JSON exports in audit packages.

9 · Compliance Checklist

[ ] /metrics scraped in staging & production; dashboards display ui_route_render_seconds, ui_request_duration_seconds, and downloads metrics.
[ ] OTLP traces/logs confirmed end-to-end (collector, Tempo/Loki).
[ ] Alert rules from §6 implemented in monitoring stack with runbooks linked.
[ ] Feature flags documented and change-controlled; telemetry disabled only with approval.
[ ] DPoP/fresh-auth anomalies correlated with Authority audit logs during drill.
[ ] Offline capture workflow exercised; evidence stored in audit vault.
[ ] Screenshots of Grafana dashboards committed once they stabilise (update references).
[ ] Cross-links verified (Console deployment guide, Console security guide, UI guide — see §10).

10 · References

Console deployment guide – Compose/Offline Kit profiles and operator checklist.
Console security guide – security metrics and alert hints.
UI guide – Console workflows and offline posture.
Telemetry standards – platform-wide telemetry envelope, scrubbing, and sampling.
Collector operations & storage operations – collector/storage deployment (roadmap).
Telemetry module README – current vs roadmap surface, DI entry points, and the authoritative architecture pointer.

Last updated: 2025-10-28 (Sprint 23).